Saudi Arabia Intermediate School Curriculum (Grades 7-9) - English

The Saudi English Language framework (SELF) outlines the English language curriculum for intermediate and secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. The curriculum follows the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Intermediate school students (Grades 7-9) are expected to reach level A2.2/B1.1 by the end of Grade 9.

Intermediate School (Grades 7-9)

The curriculum aims to develop communicative competence in English, enabling learners to interact in various social contexts. It emphasizes an eclectic methodology, incorporating elements from different teaching approaches. The curriculum also acknowledges the importance of cultural understanding, integrating source, target, and international target culture materials. New technologies are encouraged to facilitate learner-centered activities and enhance motivation. Assessment focuses on the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), curricular goals, and learning strategies.

Grade 7 (A1.2)

• Objectives: Focuses on developing basic communication skills. Students learn to differentiate between similar sounds, understand basic information in short dialogues, recognize intonation patterns, and follow simple instructions. They also begin to write simple phrases and sentences, applying basic punctuation rules.
• Topics/Vocabulary: Expands on elementary school topics, covering areas such as school, people, the world around them, time, animals, colors, and basic daily activities. The vocabulary expands to approximately 1100 words.
• Functions and Language Exponents: Includes greetings, introductions, expressing possession, ability, likes/dislikes, asking for permission, telling time, giving directions, talking about everyday activities, and simple past events.
• Grammar: Covers demonstratives, regular and irregular plural nouns, articles, possessive adjectives, question words, the verb "to be," "to have," modals (can/can't, must/mustn't), prepositions of place and time, present simple, present progressive, future going to, comparative and superlative forms, past simple, and basic conjunctions.

Grade 8 (A2.1)

• Objectives: Builds upon Grade 7 skills, focusing on understanding and producing more complex language. Students learn to understand the main idea in short texts, follow simple talks, and understand directions. They develop writing skills by linking sentences with connectors and giving personal information.
• Topics/Vocabulary: Further expands on previous topics, introducing new vocabulary related to work, sports, hobbies, feelings, and more detailed descriptions of everyday life. The vocabulary grows to approximately 1650 words.
• Functions and Language Exponents: Includes talking about past events, expressing emotions, making requests, giving and following instructions, describing people and things, expressing preferences, making comparisons, discussing future plans, offering help, and asking for and giving directions.
• Grammar: Covers a wider range of grammatical structures, including past continuous, adverbs of manner, possessive pronouns, conditional sentences (zero and first conditional), modals (could, should, may, might), future will, present perfect simple, too/enough, relative pronouns, so/neither, countable and uncountable nouns, and a broader range of conjunctions.

Grade 9 (A2.2 / B1.1)

• Objectives: Aims for students to understand the main points in longer texts, understand sequence, and transfer information between different formats. Writing skills are developed further, focusing on connecting texts, paragraphing, and writing different text types like notes, messages, informal letters, and short descriptions.
• Topics/Vocabulary: Continues to expand vocabulary across a range of topics, including science and technology, health, the arts, and more abstract concepts. The vocabulary reaches approximately 2200 words.
• Functions and Language Exponents: Includes making comparisons, discussing past habits, defining people and things, expressing conditions and results, discussing future plans, giving instructions, talking about experiences, describing feelings, narrating past events, expressing opinions, making deductions, and reporting commands and requests.
• Grammar: Covers more complex grammar, including all/both/neither/none/either, passive voice, reported speech, past perfect simple, clauses of result, full and bare infinitive, -ing form, future will, and a wider range of conjunctions.